"Where does it say that you have a contract with G-d to have an easy life?"

the Lubavitcher Rebbe

"Failure is not the enemy of success; it is its prerequisite."

Rabbi Nosson Scherman

2 Jan 2013

Acts of kindness

This morning I received an email titled a daily dose of kindness.
Shmuel Greenbaum writes:

Partners in Kindness and A Tradition of Kindness are dedicated in memory of my late wife, Shoshana (Hayman) Greenbaum z"l. Shoshana was murdered by a suicide bomber. She was one of over 100 victims that were killed or injured at 2:00 P.M. on August 9, 2001 at the Sbarro restaurant in Jerusalem. Shoshana had the rare ability to serve as a role model for kindness and Godliness to thousands of people.

An anecdote of kindness accompanied the email.

A friend knows that I love kindness stories so he always tells me a story when we speak. My friend’s father overheard this story when he went to visit a mourner during shiva (the 7 day period of mourning):

* One of the visitors who came to pay respects told the man who was mourning the loss of his father:

"We don’t know each other, but I just wanted to tell you why I came:

Many years ago a woman had just left a cemetery in Long Island and was sitting outside the cemetery, waiting at a bus stop for the first of several buses she would have to take on a trip that would last several hours in order to get back to her home in East New York, Brooklyn.

A man driving by noticed her and asked her if he could give her a lift. She told him she was going to East New York.

The man said "what a coincidence, I live in East New York too!"

He drove her home and told her. "Since we have the same yahrtzeit (anniversary of the death of a loved one) at the same cemetery and we both live in East New York, I would be happy to take you to the cemetery every year."

That woman was my mother and the man was your father.

The man sitting shiva told his guest. "My father told me that story many times about how he always drove a woman to the cemetery once a year. But there is something you should know about my father – he did not live in East New York and he did not have yahrtzeit on that day….

Mi keamcha Yisrael.

This morning I read about a man who is severely ill and needed the assistance of the MDA to get to his doctor in Jerusalem. After the medical check-up, the man asked if he could pray at the Kotel, perhaps for the final time. After receiving permission, the ambulance crew set about fuflfilling the man's wish. An emotional visit for both the bedridden patient as well as an ambulance staff member was captured on film over here.